Things I will and won't miss about Japan

So, the time is fast approaching: I have just four weeks left in this incredible country and I'm starting to think about what it'll be like to be home.

Many things will likely come up on this list under both categories, because there is some aspect I will love, and some that I will hate.

Things I Will Miss

University Life in Japan

It is a surprising thing that, for all its reputation of being as grueling as a 48-hour slog on a treadmill at full pace, University in Japan has been quite easy. We hear stories from many of our friends at how difficult it was to get into University (and high school, for that matter), often with days starting at 6am and ending at 11pm, all in preparation for the entrance exams.

Now, whether it's because I'm a foreign student or because it's just the way Japanese Universities are, I don't know - but the classes (I should say lecture, but I really can't bring myself to) and the tests (because they're definitely not exams) are so much easier than even A-levels, it's difficult to comprehend. Hindsight being 20-20, maybe I should have joined fewer GIS/ESOP classes (the ones that are in English) and more actual 学部 classes (full university courses).

Public transport in Tokyo

While I can't speak for the buses, the trains in Tokyo run like clockwork (one line is completely automated, even!). I think the most I've ever waited for a train was 30 minutes, and that was because it was 5am, and we wanted to get on the first train. For me, at any rate, the trains here have only ever been one or two minutes late. But the thing I really love about this, is that there is no grand apology for the train being late, announced over the tannoy in the station. Everyone just quietly gets on with waiting. If the wait is significant (not really sure what would constitute significant, but lets say about ten minutes) then there is an apology. This sounds so much better than Northern Rail apologising for every train being late even when it's just one minute. It actually sounds like the metro company feels bad about the delay (not least because it's a real person who gives the apology).

Oh yeah, and it's just cheap! One side of Tokyo to the other (basically from where I live to Yokohama) is roughly 1000yen. That's £8. Try crossing London for less than that. Hell, it's something like £5 just to get to Leeds from Keighley!

Izakayas

Japan doesn't have pubs. 居酒屋 literally means inhabit-alcohol-room. One's order is made like at a restaurant, and the alcohol is brought to you. Often, an all-you-can-drink is offered, for something astoundingly cheap - think about £15-20 for 2 hours of as much alcohol as you can stomach. The atmosphere in an izakaya depends wildly on the place in question, but by and large they are places of merriment and rowdiness (drinking songs and games are usually performed/played with much gusto). Google translate tells me that 居酒屋 translates as "tavern" - this sounds about right.

Japanese food

This is something that I've come to enjoy less and less as the prospect of real, British food is fast advancing (oh Yorkshire puddings and gravy: how I miss thee!), but there are still certain dishes that I crave on a regular basis: good, high quality ramen is chuffin' delicious! Sushi is also damned good, and the more said about gyuudon (frilly beef to my little sister) the better. Some, or all, of these things I think I'll have to learn to make when I go home, to better inflict upon those poor souls that haven't come so far east.

Weather

Whilst mild and rainy suits me down to the ground, and 30+ degree heats are not all that fun, I will still miss how Japan's weather basically returns to sunshine and heat after a day or two of rain, and all puddles and memory of the rain is basically gone (except for the odd, discarded umbrella). And yes, I do wilt in such dreadful heat, and haven't managed to tan very much (something that I'll be changing next week!), but I just love how I can wake up most days to clear blue skies, the sun shining through my window and not have to bother putting anything but shorts on.

Convenience Stores （コンビニ）

With a Seven-Eleven on most street corners, or a Lawson, Family Mart or Sunkus, you are never without emergency provisions at hand. If you get a bit peckish, pop into a combini and grab yourself a rice-ball for 100yen! Or if you're in need of something less foody, why not buy an umbrella? Or perhaps you want to catch up on the latest exploits of your favourite anime character? Buy the latest volume. Do you need stationary? Or make-up? Maybe a screwdriver or two? Perhaps you want to buy tickets to a concert or a plane ticket. There is basically no need to go anywhere else if you have a convenience store in close proximity to you. Truly these stores are convenient!

Heated Toilet Seats
This is something that (thanks to a 30+ degree summer, and it's not even August yet) I've not really experienced lately, but was eternally grateful for in the cold months of January and February... At first I was apprehensive about such an invention, as nobody likes using a toilet with someone else's... warmth on the seat. However, the more I experienced it, the more I came to appreciate it: The toilets at my dormitory are not heated, and the toilet room itself is not so great at keeping in the heat. As a result, every time I wanted to go to the loo, I was faced with pressing my cheeks to a sub-zero toilet seat and get finished as fast as possible. Therefore, I made sure to use the toilet in a convenience store with as much regularity as I could muster. Come winter, I'll no doubt be missing these!

Frisbee in the park
This semester, we've gone to play Frisbee (takes a capital 'f'... Who knew?!) in the park nearby to my dormitory a hell of a lot. It started out as playing during the day on a weekend, or public holiday... But it very soon escalated to going out every night and throwing the disc around. We've even invented our own sport out of it. Now, this isn't something that I can only experience in Japan, and it may be that it's the people that I do this with most often that I'll miss the most (I'm looking at you Thibault Bachoffner, George Cashman and Ron Hurrle), but when I go home... It doesn't bare thinking about.
Hi, my name is Bill, and I'm an addict... It's been 23 hours since I last threw a Frisbee.

Things I Won't Miss

This is likely to end up as something of a rant about most of my bad experiences, and don't let it give you a false impression of Japan, or of my feelings about Japan: everywhere has its good and bad points, and Tokyo is no exception.

Crowds

Tokyo, being the capital of Japan has an enormous population (which varies massively depending on how you measure). Never is this more apparent when you go to a festival, or ride a train at 8.30 in the morning, or about 10 in the evening. Japanese people in general being pretty courteous are nothing of the sort in a crowd. On the train coming back from a late night of work, I had successfully negotiated a seat from the get-go (no small feat, let me tell you!). As the train got closer to Kasai, where I live, it got more and more fuller - nothing strange, as Kasai seems to be where most people that ride the Tozai line live. As the train pulled into and stopped at Kasai, no sooner had I risen from my seat (we're talking inches here) than some woman was pushing me out of the way to get to the seat itself. Grr doesn't cover it. At the best of times, I don't like crowds, but Japanese trains are downright horrible at the wrong times.

Food

Japanese food, whilst delicious, is invariably expensive and far too small. To order a pizza at a restaurant in Japan is to pay about £10 for something smaller than a normal dinner plate. A plate of chips can set you back £5, and a curry that would barely fill a child (and at nearly maximum heat did not even make my tongue tingle) was nearly £15. And if I never eat another fish with bones in it again, it'll be too soon. Japan: kindly get your shit together.

Dormitory Life

As a 19 year old (20 soon, woo!) a midnight curfew is pretty annoying... For some of the older folks here, I bet it's downright offensive. But this one's not so much annoying as a minor inconvenience: it's absurdly easy to climb the fence and get in through one of the perpetually open fire-doors (don't get me started!). In fact, I'll probably miss the exhilarating rush of climbing the fence in the dead of night more than I won't miss it! But what really annoys me about living in a dorm is the other people, specifically the Japanese people. Most of them seem to be either in the tail-end of high school or the first few years of University. As such, a good deal of them are moody as hell and pretty antisocial. And a helpful hint: playing the trombone/trumpet/French horn or whatever it is at midnight is not cool Goddammit!! And another thing: is it so f***ing difficult to clean up the sink that we all use every day after you've shaved in it. I don't want to go to a sink to brush my teeth or whatever and find that it's covered in hair that you couldn't be arsed rinsing away.

Convenience store shouting

When I enter a shop, it's always nice to be greeted. But dragging out いらっしゃいませ to a five second soliloquy is just ridiculous. It's unnecessary and annoying. Don't do it. Also, some of the convenience store staff seem to think it's acceptable to shout in a voice that you can hear at the back of the shop exactly how much money you've passed them and precisely how much change you've received. This again is infuriating and pointless, but also potentially dangerous. Don't do it.

Bikes in Japan
Now this could well just be Kasai (where I live), and there is a reasonable amount of evidence to support that claim. But in any case: there should be a law against people having no mufflers on their motorbikes/scooters etc. I have lost count of the times I've been awoken at 4 in the smegging morning by some utter tool driving past my window on a motorbike. It's just not cool. And one just went past my room as I was writing this. Even if they don't go past at absurd hours of the morning, it's still annoying if you're watching a film, having a conversation or trying to read when a bike that must be breaking some kind of legal sound limit thunders past your room and makes your ears vibrate.

Mosquitoes
Enough said. Japan is crawling with insects, but I've not this year had to deal with too many, except for the damned mosquitoes. The lower half of both of my calves are riddled with bites, to the point where I woke up whilst scratching them. Luckily, at the time of biting, I was completely topless but seem to have escaped any biting of my torso. But still: I. Hate. Mosquitoes!!!
Also, I'm pretty sure that spell check is just messing with me here: I don't think I've ever used an 'e' to pluralise mosquito...

That's probably broadly it... I might update the list as more things come to mind later on, and I'll probably do another version of this after I've been at home for a few weeks. じゃね！